"I have no intention of keeping you from the baby, just so you know. You can be as involved as you want."
"I'm going to be there for everything, the Lamaze classes, the midnight snack runs, baby proofing the apartment. Although," I mused, "we can tackle that after you're moved in and we get married."
Chapter 5
Juliette
I leapt off his lap like a startled cat, practically hissing with irritation at the backhanded way he'd brought up marriage. Something so sacred should be treated with more respect than a casual comment to the woman you'd knocked up during a one-night stand-even if I was the woman in question and a part of me desperately wanted to accept his proposal. Or his assumption that we were going to get married since he hadn't actually bothered to propose.
"I can't-you just-this isn't-" I sputtered, unable to form a complete sentence.
"You can," he snapped, snaking an arm around my waist and pulling me back onto his lap.
"You will." He dropped a kiss on my lips when I tried to disagree with him.
"And none of this is up for debate." His hand rested on my stomach, giving it a little squeeze for emphasis.
"Forgive me for thinking I should have a say in decisions that impact my future." My sarcastic response earned me a little swat on my butt after he'd tilted me to the side. "Hey!" I yelped.
"I think you meant to say our future," he rumbled. "Didn't you, Jules?'
"Well, yeah. Kinda. Sorta," I mumbled, flustered by the rush of heat in my veins from the sting his hand left behind. "I mean, obviously our lives will be intertwined from now on because of the baby, but that doesn't mean you get to just proclaim that I'm going to move in and marry you. You can't expect me to meekly follow your dictate like some brainless sycophant."
"I never said I didn't expect you to need a little time to agree with me, baby," he chuckled. "Feel free to try and resist, as long as you keep in mind that it's futile because you're going to have my ring on your finger to go along with my baby in your belly. At least your defiance gives me an excuse to get creative when it comes to convincing you to say yes."
"Creative?" I gasped as his palm slid up my thigh to cup me intimately.
"How else am I supposed to get you to mindlessly agree with me except to make you lose all reason?" His question was a rumble of sound against my skin as he kissed my throat and worked his way around to my ear. "It only seems fair since you've driven me out of mine for months. It's a damn good thing our new fundraising campaign has decreased my surgery time because you've been hell on my concentration."
"Really?" I whispered back, surprised to hear he'd thought about me enough to mess with his focus.
"I couldn't seem to get you out of my head." He gripped my neck to pull me closer and dropped his forehead against mine. "Not that I tried too hard. It made me feel closer to you."
I melted, utterly enchanted by his admission. It was entirely unexpected and made me feel like maybe he wanted me for more than just the baby-and sex. I had no doubt he wanted me for that, not with the proof of his desire hard beneath me.
"And now that I have you back where you belong, you're going to have a hard time getting me out of you. I need you too badly." His tongue slid between my lips and caressed mine slowly. This kiss was softer than our others, more thorough, as he leisurely explored my mouth.
When he lifted his head, I was panting for breath and darn close to begging him to make me come again. Cradling me in his arms, he rose to his feet and carried me to his bedroom as though I was as light as a feather. When my back hit the mattress, I could only stare up at him helplessly. His dark eyes lit with appreciation as he looked down at me, making my nipples harden at the blatant arousal shining from his gaze.
My breath caught in my throat when he raised me up to lift my shirt over my head. With a flick of his wrist, he unsnapped my bra and slid it off my shoulders. I couldn't stop the whimper that escaped my lips when he traced my nipple with a fingertip and it peaked even further under his touch.
"I should make you beg me for it, but I want you too much to wait any more to feel your heat wrapped around me."
He wasn't trying to hide how I affected him, and his honesty made me want to give him a concession. Maybe just a tiny one.
"Please, Declan. Don't make either of us wait." It wasn't quite begging, but I figured it was close enough.
By the flare of approval in his eyes, it seemed he agreed. He eased my skirt over my hips and down my legs, his five o'clock shadow scraping against my sensitive skin as he nibbled his way back up my body.
"I dreamed about this pussy every single night," he murmured, his palm cupping me again. "When I took your virginity, I claimed it as mine."
The possessiveness in his tone sent shivers up my spine. I opened my legs wider to give him better access while I was splayed naked on the mattress beneath him. Lifting himself up, he practically tore his clothes from his body before moving back between my thighs. His cock pushed against me.
"I'm clean, it'd been almost two years for me before I saw you on that stage. I want to take you bare."
Two years? It didn't seem possible, considering Declan was an insanely hot doctor who was incredible in the sack. He must have interpreted my skeptical face for resistance because he continued to make his argument for going without a condom.
"I haven't so much as even looked at another woman since that night," he admitted. "And I've planted my baby inside you so there really isn't any need for one. Besides which, we went through the entire box last time and I haven't replaced it."
"Fat lot of good that did."
"You'd think the head of Pediatric surgery would have thought to look at the expiration on a box of condoms before using them," he breathed into my ear, a hint of sheepishness in his tone. "But you had me so desperate to get inside you that I wasn't thinking clearly."
"Your condoms were expired?" I gasped. That solved the mystery of how I'd managed to get knocked up the night I lost my virginity. It was almost as though this baby was meant to be.
He nudged inside me about an inch and held still. "It's only a guess. The last thing I cared about when you left me was an empty box of condoms. I was too busy fighting myself from going after you and convincing you to stay," he whispered, right before shifting his hips and slowly sliding the rest of the way inside me.
My emotions spiraled out of control, damn my hormones and his silver tongue. Tears swam in my eyes as I closed them before I totally lost it.
"Juliette, don't hide from me," he demanded. I slowly raised my lids, and he rewarded me with a circle of his hips. "I never want to spend so much time away from you again. I want you and our baby in my life. In my home. Our home."
He withdrew from my body and plunged back in, making me gasp.
"Talk later. More moving now," I whimpered, rocking my hips back and forth.
He pulled out and rammed back in. "I'm happy those condoms didn't work. Thrilled as fuck that my baby is growing inside you."
"Please, Declan."
"Say you'll marry me."
"Need to come," I pleaded.
"Marry me," he repeated.
"Not like this," I breathed out.
"You want to say yes, I can see it in your eyes," he rasped, grinding his pelvis against me.
"I'm not getting engaged while we're having sex" I groaned, even as my body tightened in pleasure.
"This isn't just sex, baby. It's so much more."
He rocked gently back into me, and I moaned. Our night together had been amazing, but this was even better somehow. More intense with our eyes locked together while he leisurely plunged in and out of me. It didn't take long before I began to shudder underneath him.
"Marry me."
My head moved from side to side, both as an answer and as a sign of how close to the edge I was. My hands were clenched on the damp skin of his back, and my heels were digging into the taut flesh of his butt. Whatever it took to get his body as close to me as I could.
"Fine, tell me yes later but come for me now," he urged.
"Yes," I moaned on the next surge of his hips, my pussy clenching around his cock while fireworks burst behind my eyelids.
He pushed inside one last time before his body went rigid. Then he held himself deep and filled me with his come, rolling to the side and taking me with him when he was empty. I rested my head on his chest and listened to his heartbeat as it slowed back to normal, thinking about how much I'd missed him. I wasn't sure if it was the right decision because it seemed too much like trapping him with the pregnancy, but I went ahead and did it anyway because I didn't want to let him go.
"Yes," I sighed. "I'll marry you."
Chapter 6
Declan
I was fucking exhausted and loathed the idea of letting my woman go, even for a minute. But, a stronger part of me reacted to Juliette's agreement with a burst of energy and I jumped out of bed, turning to face her. "Don't move."
She rose up on her elbows and lifted an eyebrow but then shrugged and plopped back down. I grinned at her before spinning on my heel and rushing out, down the hall, and into my office. Quickly punching in the combination to my wall safe, I swung it open and snatched a tiny black, velvet box from inside. Then I shut the little door and hightailed it back to my beautiful dancer.